Italy’s economy and polity are in perennial trouble, but its prime minister Silvio Berlusconi survives every blow. All the more reason to scrutinise Italy's opposition, says Geoff Andrews.
The search for accountability for the genocide in Bangladesh in 1971 needs international support, say Jalal Alamgir & Tazreena Sajjad.
The economic crisis has hit Russian regions hard. Natalya Zubarevich deems government solutions to the resulting unemployment to be mainly a smoke and mirrors job, which conceals a real unemployment figure of 8%.
The daunting task of post-earthquake reconstruction in Haiti amounts to a long-term challenge in state-building, say Mariano Aguirre & Tone Faret of the Norwegian Peacebuilding Centre.
The existing levels of human insecurity in Haiti make the country’s post-disaster recovery even more difficult. All the more important that the world gets the response right and makes a sustained commitment, says Johanna Mendelson Forman.
The result of Chile’s presidential election reflects less the achievement of the rightwing candidate than the failure of the centre-left coalition, says Justin Vogler.
A key institution of modern justice must learn how to speak to the world it inhabits, says James A Goldston.
A "great debate" over French national identity is compromised by its politicised character and exclusionary discourse, says Patrice de Beer.
Scotland's nationalist government projects the confident vision of a country moving towards independence. But the cramped nature of much public debate inhibits the renewal it seeks, says Tom Gallagher.
The challenge of an emergent xenophobic populism in Sweden is provoking thoughtful centre-left voices to seek an effective response, finds Mats Engström in Stockholm.
The degrading aftermath of Sri Lanka’s civil war demands international action to ensure protection of its civilians from their overweening rulers, says Martin Shaw.
The social damage of governmental and financial negligence in the banking crisis is clear from the perspective of Scotland’s border-country, finds the scholar-politician Christopher Harvie.
